For more than a decade now, Jamaica’s women have bossed the 100m. Veronica Campbell-Brown won Jamaica’s first global 100m gold medal in Osaka in 2007 and since then Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah have basically made the 100m their own with the former winning five world titles and two Olympic titles while Thompson won back to back 100m titles in Brazil in 2016 and 2021 in Tokyo, Japan where she established a new Olympic record of 10.61.
However, with their dominance of the blue-ribbon sprint at its zenith, the women from the land of wood and water seem poised to begin dominating yet another event, the 100m hurdles. Since the 1990s, Jamaica has done reasonably well at the sprint hurdles.
Michelle Freeman was the first Jamaican woman to reach a global final and eventually won won global medals in 1993 and 1997. Dionne Rose and Freeman were Jamaica's first ever Olympic finalists, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively in 1996.
The following year Freeman and Gillian Russell, a 1995 World Championships finalist, went 1-2 at the World Indoor Championships.
Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Delloreen Ennis-London picked up from them with the former winning silver at the 2003 World Championships, bronze in 2005. Ennis-London won a silver and bronze at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships respectively.
Foster-Hylton made the breakthrough at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin with a fantastic run to give Jamaica gold, Ennis-London won the bronze. Danielle Williams won Jamaica’s second 100m hurdles gold in Beijing 2015 in Beijing and followed with a bronze medal in 2019.
Two years later, Megan Tapper created history for Jamaica when she became the first-ever Jamaican woman to win a medal in the 100m hurdles at an Olympic Games when she captured bronze in Tokyo, Japan.
Then at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Britany Anderson, a finalist in Tokyo in 2021, won silver in the sprint hurdlers.
Tapper and Anderson are among a growing cadre of Jamaican female sprint hurdlers who are among the very best in the world. Among them are Ackera Nugent, the World U20 60m hurdles record holder who opened her 2023 season with a time of 8.00 indoors and Demisha Roswell, who ran a personal best 12.44 and is the fastest Jamaican woman in the world this year over the 60m hurdles with a 7.98 clocking this past weekend.
There is also hope that former national record holder Janeek Brown will make a successful return to the event this season after two years of disruption in her personal life and athletic career. Perhaps, the most talented of the lot is 17-year-old Kerrica Hill, who last year succeeded Nugent as World Under 20 champion and who recently turned professional.
In 2022, Jamaica had four of the 10 fastest women in the world. The USA also had four while Puerto Rico and Nigeria had one each.
If Jamaica’s women are to reach the pinnacle and find some level of dominance it will require a lot of technical work and consistently fast hurdling to get there but if the 100m women are anything to go by, nothing is beyond their reach.
World Athletics votes to restrict transgender athletes from competing against females; tighter restrictions for DSD athletes
The World Athletics Council agreed to update the eligibility regulations for transgender and DSD athletes to compete in the female category.
For DSD athletes, the new regulations will require any relevant athletes to reduce their testosterone levels below a limit of 2.5 nmol/L for a minimum of 24 months to compete internationally in the female category in any event, not just the events that were restricted (400m to one mile) under the previous regulations.
The principle of restricted events has been removed from the regulations.
Interim provisions will be introduced for those relevant athletes who are already competing in what were the unrestricted events (distances below 400m and above one mile, plus field events). These provisions include a requirement to suppress their testosterone levels below 2.5nmol/L for a minimum of six months, before they are eligible to compete again.
The six months period is consistent with the previous regulations, which required six months of testosterone suppression (below 5nmol/L) for DSD athletes to compete in the restricted events. The interim provisions do not apply to the previously restricted events (400m to one mile) where two years of testosterone suppression will be required before the relevant athlete is eligible to compete.
These regulations will come into effect on 31 March 2023.
In regard to transgender athletes, the Council has agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female World Rankings competition from 31 March 2023.
World Athletics conducted a consultation period with various stakeholders in the first two months of this year, including Member Federations, the Global Athletics Coaches Academy and Athletes’ Commission, the IOC as well as representative transgender and human rights groups.
It became apparent that there was little support within the sport for the option that was first presented to stakeholders, which required transgender athletes to maintain their testosterone levels below 2.5nmol/L for 24 months to be eligible to compete internationally in the female category.
In terms of DSD regulations, World Athletics has more than ten years of research and evidence of the physical advantages that these athletes bring to the female category.
However, there are currently no transgender athletes competing internationally in athletics and consequently no athletics-specific evidence of the impact these athletes would have on the fairness of female competition in athletics.
In these circumstances, the Council decided to prioritise fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion.
However the Council agreed to set up a Working Group for 12 months to further consider the issue of transgender inclusion.
This Working Group will include an independent chair, up to three Council Members, two athletes from the Athletes’ Commission, a transgender athlete, three representatives of the Member Federations and representatives of the World Athletics Health and Science Department.
Its remit will be to consult specifically with transgender athletes to seek their views on competing in athletics; to review and/or commission additional research where there is currently limited research and to put forward recommendations to Council.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations. We will be guided in this by the science around physical performance and male advantage which will inevitably develop over the coming years. As more evidence becomes available, we will review our position, but we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount."
Excellent performances at NCAA Division 1 Indoors see Alfred, Nugent and Distin named to Bowerman watch list
Julien Alfred, Ackera Nugent and Lamara Distin are among ten women named to the watch list for the 2023 Bowerman Award after standout performances at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico from March 10-11.
The Bowerman is an award given to the year’s best student-athlete in American collegiate track & field.
There was also a pre-NCAA Indoor Championships list revealed earlier in March that included Alfred and Distin.
St. Lucian Texas senior Alfred capped off a spectacular indoor season with a personal best and collegiate record 6.94 to defend her NCAA Indoor title. Her time made her the fastest Caribbean woman ever in the event and put her joint-second all-time behind Irina Privalova’s 6.92.
The 21-year-old also won gold in the 200m in 22.01, another collegiate record and the second fastest time ever behind Jamaican Merlene Ottey’s 21.87 done 30 years ago in Lille.
Arkansas sophomore Nugent, who was absent from the list released before the championships, earned her way on to the new one when she won gold in the 60m hurdles in 7.73.
On day one of the meet, Nugent, 20, set a new collegiate and Jamaican national record when she ran 7.72 in the prelims. That time puts her fourth on the all-time list for the event.
23-year-old Texas A&M senior Distin completed another unbeaten indoor season with a 1.91m clearance to win the high jump. In February, Distin cleared 1.97m to equal her own Jamaican record.
The other seven athletes on the watch list are Florida’s Jasmine Moore and Talitha Diggs, Kentucky’s Masai Russell, NC State’s Kaetlyn Tuohy, Oregon’s Jorinde Van Klinken, Stanford’s Roisin Willis and Arkansas’s Britton Wilson.
Fraser McConnell caps off NitroRX season with podium finish as Dreyer & Reinbold claims team title
Jamaica’s lone rally cross driver Fraser McConnell capped off a fine 2022/23 Nitro Rally Cross season by finishing second in the season finale Group E Round 10 event at Glen Helen Raceway in California last weekend. McConnell demonstrated his tactical prowess during the damp six-lap final, only to be edged out by Dreyer&Reinbold Swedish teammate Robin Larsson, who took the final event in a time of 4:58:964.
Norway’s Andreas Bakkerud made it a clean sweep for team DRR after finishing third.
For his efforts, McConnell ended the overall championship third in Nitro RX 2022/23 and his contribution also allowed for team DRR to secure the team title which was pleasing for the Jamaican. “It has been a really great season in Nitro with me having a lot on the table and racing alongside people like Travis Pastrana, who is my childhood hero,” McConnell said.
“To be able to get third in the Championship with such a stacked field, was a big accomplishment for myself and Jamaica.”
McConnell entered the final day as one of the top five racers who were close in the championship standings. With Larsson eventually sewing up the championship, it was down to McConnell and Pastrana to see who would finish second and third, with the American just edging out the Jamaican in the last race of the season.
Following another successful season made possible by the support of sponsors Tru Shake, Just Bet, Proven Wealth, Jamaica Tourist Board and Rainforest Seafood, McConnell is already looking ahead to next season with his team in talks with the Nitro RX organizers to kick off the new season in June of this year.
“I am very happy with where I am at in my career and this past season really developed me as a driver. This shows that I can compete and beat the best in the world,” added McConnell.
After a break back home, McConnell will next turn his attention to the X44 Vida Carbon Racing, the Extreme E Team founded by Seven-Time Formula 1 Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton.
McConnell will join season-two winner and World Champion Cristina Gutiérrez as his race partner.
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